


Something New to Learn

by silveryink



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Brothers, Dyslexia, Gen, I mean it could also be post Endgame, Implied/Referenced Severe Injury, Loki (Marvel) Lives, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Loki is a Scholar, Peter and Shuri are genii, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Probably OOC but at this point I couldn't care less, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, anyone who says otherwise can fight me, mild telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Thor propped his feet up on Loki’s bed, leaning back in his chair. Loki would definitely chastise him for his lack of manners, but he didn’t really care. He’d take his brother’s irritation at him over his brother’s death any day.Or, Thor and Loki deal with something that's been bugging him with the help of two genius teens





	Something New to Learn

Thor propped his feet up on Loki’s bed, leaning back in his chair. Loki would definitely chastise him for his lack of manners, but he didn’t really care. He’d take his brother’s irritation at him over his brother’s death any day. No one knew how Loki had been resurrected, of if he _had_ been. All Thor (and Loki) knew was that he was here, _alive_ , and healing. He glanced at said brother, who was sleeping peacefully as he hadn’t in weeks.

Thor remembered the first few days all too well – when Loki’s neck hadn’t healed at all, and how he couldn’t breathe enough without choking on air. It had been touch and go, and they’d nearly lost him several times in the process, as Shuri had told him later, but she’d managed to reconstruct his windpipe enough for him to breathe enough air to survive (which at that point was all they could have hoped for). His neck had realigned itself over the next week, and Thor had to hold Loki down and comfort him as his magic attempted to fix the injury that hurt more as it repaired. He hadn’t been able to scream, but the way he’d tried to cry out still made Thor’s eyes tear up.

Thor shuddered, trying not to think of it. That had been an absolute nightmare for both of them. The doctors had instructed Loki to use his voice as little as possible, so the trickster had reverted to a basic form of telepathy that wouldn’t affect the recipient in any way. Thor had explained it to them at great length that all it would do was project his brother’s voice without his having to speak verbally. Though there had been some misgivings due to past experiences, they’d given in, and Loki had soon arrived at a mutual agreement with the authorities – the World Security Council – to provide the people of Earth with reparations for his actions in New York six years ago.

The remaining Aesir had nowhere to go, which the humans realised, and after some negotiations they allotted a somewhat secluded region of Norway to be used as a settlement. Thor had nearly despaired over the amount of paperwork it had entailed, but Loki’s calm instructions and explanation of legal jargon had slowly thinned the number of documents he had left. Thank the Norns for his brother’s inability to stay rooted in one place, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone down to Midgard years ago to get himself a law degree.

If only he could keep track of what he was doing, Thor thought wryly, rubbing his good eye. Loki’s old spell had worn off sometime in the last three years or so, but the pace at which he was used to moving was much faster than the one he was stuck in. He wouldn’t dream of asking Loki to spend precious energy on him, when his spine was still repairing itself. Most of it had been realigned during the first week, and now all that was left to be fixed were his vocal cords and cracked vertebrae. Those were healing nicely, though the doctors had told them that Loki’s voice may not completely recover. While Loki hadn’t been all that bothered about it, Thor’s heart sank at the thought of his brother’s voice not returning to him fully.

So, the spell was, as Tony once said it, a no go.

He had to keep working, he knew that, but he also knew that attempting to do so now would do nothing to help him. He would be able to work better after some rest, he mused, shifting into a more comfortable position. He rested his head on an armrest, leaving his feet to dangle over the other end. It wasn’t the best position he could’ve been in, but it would do.

Sleep took over him much quicker than he would have cared to admit.

* * *

When the two of them were more awake, they worked on the documents again. After a quarter of an hour or so, Loki spoke up. “Did my spell wear off?”

“Loki, you’re not supposed to strain your voice,” Thor reminded, sidestepping the question. Loki had always been acute with his observations.

 _Answer my question, brother,_ Loki broadcasted.

“If it did?”

_I could restore it. It would make this-_

Thor stopped him by resting his hand on Loki’s own. “You’re still healing. Save your magic for yourself. And I know for a fact that you have limited telepathic abilities without having to stress your magic, so don’t try that excuse either.”

Loki shook his head disbelievingly. Thor could feel a slight hum, as though Loki was gathering his thoughts, but the door opened and Peter’s head appeared in the doorway before he could say anything. “Do you mind if Shuri and I stayed here? They kicked us out of the lab.”

“Or, as Stark put it, ‘the adults were talking’. Mr. Doormat here-”

“Hey-”

“-decided to actually listen. No one else is as interesting as you guys-”

“-but we don’t want to intrude,” Peter finished, shooting a glare that lost its effect at his friend.

The brothers exchanged a look. There was no saying no to them, was there? Thor nodded, and the teenagers entered and shut the door behind them gently. “Is this a bad time?” Peter asked again.

Loki shook his head. _A small argument, that is all._

“Argument is a generous word for it.”

_You being stubborn as usual?_

“I was thinking more along the lines of bickering?”

_That… is fair._

“Can I ask what you were being stubborn about?”

Thor glanced at Loki, who raised his hands. _It’s your choice_.

Well. They would find out sooner or later. If he was going to tell anyone, it might as well be them. He nodded decisively and met their gazes. “It’s something that has bothered me since I was a child. I suppose you might need a little context – my brother _loves_ research, and reading in general. History, politics, magical theory – he has been fond of it all since we started our first lessons. He even learned his letters beforehand, if I recall correctly. I, on the other hand, was more…”

 _Athletically inclined?_ Loki suggested. _While I don’t know why Thor thinks this is relevant, I’d say he is, by temperament, a warrior. His role models were fighters, and he helped Mother train me to fight all sorts of enemies, which is why I can hold my own against someone much larger than I. General Tyr was a great help too, actually. He and mother trained me to be a combat mage. However, it stands to fact that I preferred the libraries and courts of Asgard, and Thor loved the training grounds._

“Couldn’t have said it better,” Thor commented. “Well, while I was mostly interested in warfare, I also loved certain subjects that were taught to us – the closest field to them on Midgard would be… astrophysics. I also learned many languages. But I couldn’t… I had difficulties in spelling, in written and reading assignments. Loki and I set it aside as first, and we didn’t pay much attention to it. I thought it was just a sign that I was meant to be a warrior.

“Then Father – Odin – found out that I was rather backward in my studies, for someone my age. He thought I wasn’t taking my education seriously. Mother was away at the time, so I went to the next best person available for help – Loki. I cannot tell you how good of a decision that was. I am grateful for going to my brother for help, even today.” He didn’t have to look at Loki to know that his brother was smiling, pleasantly surprised by the revelation.

“So, I went to Loki and told him everything. At this point, our tutors had insisted that I was not academically inclined – Loki, what is it?”

_They spoke of you. You never knew, but they presumed you to be lazy, inept. Incapable of meeting their standards. I am ever so glad you proved them wrong._

Thor was unused to such honesty on his brother’s part. True, the two of them had promised not to lie to each other, but Loki rarely spoke of his feelings to anyone, preferring instead to wrap them behind an expressionless face. Or had that been a product of his year in the Void? He sincerely hoped it was the latter, though Loki’s ‘poker face’ was a marvel to behold during council meetings.

“I – you…” Thor grinned shyly before addressing the teens once more. Their expressions were rapt, engaged entirely in his words. “Loki assisted me with all our lessons. He taught me exceptionally well, and didn’t bother to tell me until he was done that he had devised a spell to help me with the problem.”

“Magical steroids?” Shuri asked.

_Absolutely not. This was completely different, and – well – we’re coming to that._

“The spell had to be refreshed every ten years or so. Magic only lasts so long when it is used on another living being. Inanimate objects hold power for much longer. And I fared much better in my education. I learned both with and without the spell, of course – Loki made sure that I wasn’t using the spell as a sort of crutch, that I could function just as well without it – but it made my life much easier, purely because I was so much slower without it, even with all my efforts.

“Then came my coronation, when I came to Earth for the first time in a thousand years, and…”

“And I fell,” Loki whispered, resting a hand on Thor’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t _say_ that,” Thor said. “We should have taken care of you better.”

“You did,” Loki insisted. “Looking back on it, it-” he broke off into a dry cough, switching seamlessly to telepathy again once the fit receded. _None of what I did – what I rationalized – makes any sense. But that’s not what we’re discussing now._

“Well…” Thor nodded again, unsure how to continue. “I suppose that was when the spell deteriorated, or started to. By the time Asgard was destroyed, and Thanos invaded our ship, it had worn off completely. Not that it was of any use on the ship – Heimdall was in charge of navigation, and my brother headed the piloting. I didn’t need to read much, and my sense of direction wasn’t exactly of use when those duties fell to others.

“Now, however…” Thor gestured at the papers on the table.

Peter looked thoughtful. “Can you describe it again? What it feels like?”

Thor glanced at his hands, trying to quench the tendril of anxiety growing in his mind. “The letters go backwards, sometimes. It takes a long time to read things.”

“And do you mix up your directions? Like, left and right?”

“I – yes,” Thor said, flummoxed. “How could you tell?”

“On Earth,” Shuri explained, “we have a name for it. It’s called dyslexia. It is a specialised learning disorder, usually detected in children, but adults have it too.”

The brothers stared at the teenagers in silence. Thor’s mind was racing, he wasn’t the only one, there were _others_ with-

“It has a _name_?” Loki asked hoarsely. Shuri nodded, brow furrowed in confusion. “Do you not have it on Asgard?”

“Not really… Thor is the only one I know who has it.”

“Dyslexia,” Thor muttered. “So that’s what it is.”

“I’ve been telling you for a thousand years,” Loki said gleefully. “The spell wasn’t enhancing your abilities, there was nothing wrong with them, you just-”

“You mentioned the spell before,” Shuri interrupted, “What exactly does it do?”

“It alters my perceptions slightly,” Thor explained. “Makes sure that I see letters in the right order, don’t mess up my directions...”

Shuri let out a low shriek. “Do you realise what this means?” she asked them. Loki raised an eyebrow. “You found a method that could cure dyslexia!” She frowned. "Or, at least a semi-permanent aid or sorts. Even Wakanda doesn't have one of those."

 _My reparations_ , Loki suggested, starting to smile. _My magic-_

“-and my tech-”

“-could probably generate some assistive technology!” Peter finished, high-fiving Shuri.

Thor’s eyes widened. That was a possibility they hadn’t considered.

“And there might be several other things you could help us with,” Peter suggested, “with your knowledge-”

“A scholar prince, you both just made my day-”

“The amount of advancements this could do for our planet’s tech-”

The doors burst open, leading to a group of hassled-looking Avengers. “Is everything okay?”

The four occupants of the room blinked. “Yeah,” Shuri said. “Brother, why are you in your suit?”

“Mr. Stark, why are your repulsors out?” Peter asked at the same time.

Thor blinked as the two teens started to chatter eagerly, talking over one another in their excitement to get all the information out. The contents of what they said were lost to Thor, who was still mulling over this new revelation.

Thor beamed at Loki, who looked as alive as Thor hadn’t seen him in decades. The prospect of new discovery must have seemed so appealing to him, he thought. Shuri and Peter were good for him, and Thor was glad that his brother had found his kind of people on Earth. Thor glanced at the window and smiled. Things were finally looking up for everyone, he thought, as hope warmed his chest.

The sun was shining on them after all, just like Loki had promised.


End file.
